


Only Us

by A_Boy_Named_Mike



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-29
Updated: 2019-08-29
Packaged: 2020-09-29 18:16:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20440370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Boy_Named_Mike/pseuds/A_Boy_Named_Mike





	Only Us

**Author's Note:**

  * For [raendown](https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/gifts).

This is the city he was born in, all dazzling lights and hurried footfalls _tap-tap-tapping_ upon every overcrowded sidewalk.

Madara takes it all in. He inhales pollution and sweat, street food and perfume. Stone and steel and sleeplessness.

The city is overflowing, cluttered chaos and Madara is a hollow, listless thing, wandering. He walks with his head down. Between his fingers, a cigarette. He does not light it. The feel of it grounds him, and for now, it is enough.

He thinks of Tobirama.

Tobirama grew up in a place so far away, it may as well be another world. He was born to dirt roads leading nowhere, to endless plains beneath stars innumerable. Tobirama had a real childhood. Warm houses and wide open spaces.

Madara had cold rooms and cold shoulders, long hallways and claustrophobia.

He used to envy Tobirama. Envies him still.

The evening is hot, stifling. Madara walks too slow. He feels people rush past, bodies bumping his. Hears muttered curses between breaths. Cellphone conversations. Car engines.

Amid all this life, Madara feels trapped. A caged bird, wings clipped. He needs to get out. Get away.

His pace quickens. His head remains bowed, gaze locked upon the scuff marks atop his sneakers. Cracks upon the ground. Gray, all around. He turns a corner. Gray and white before him. A crosswalk.

Eyes upon him. Madara feels that gaze, knows who it belongs to, even before he looks up.

Tobirama. He stands across the street, leaning against the fence of a playground. His gaze on Madara, intent and unmoving. The corners of his lips, curving upward.

And Madara runs. Heedless of traffic, heedless of who he bumps into. He runs till he is in Tobirama's arms, till he feels like he can breathe again.

He looks up at Tobirama and grins. Grins with his frowning mouth, for the world has faded and Tobirama has not.

No cacophonous crowd or car. The scream inside him dying. Madara feels his heart ease. There is no claustrophobic city trying to drown him in its pace and unfeelingness.

There is only Tobirama. Arms tight around him. Kiss in his hair. Heart beating against his own.

Madara inhales. Breathes Tobirama in. Breathes freedom and starlight, fresh grass and roads unending.

He stands upon a sidewalk he's walked a million times, in the city he was born in, and for the first time, Madara feels like he's home.


End file.
